Am I over-reacting?

Long story short, Oz has had a leaky/weepy left eye for the better part of a year and a half. She’s been seen by multiple vets and I’ve been told it’s allergies, a blocked tear duct, and nothing at all. Her tear ducts have been flushed twice but within a day, her eye is weeping again.

There’s no cloudy/discolored discharge, only clear tears. There has never been any swelling or tenderness, she never avoids touch to it or rubs it at all. This occurs year-round and it’s also only the left eye, never the right.

Other than suggesting tear duct flushing, which hasn’t helped, the vets don’t seemed concerned by it as it doesn’t seem to cause her any discomfort.

I had made a previous thread about this when it first came about and had some serious concerns come around which is why I’ve had it looked at more and flushed twice as that was the main recommendation. I use a clean, wet washcloth daily to wipe her face off and use a fly mask to keep bugs off her face but I feel like it’s not enough.

Should I look into eye ointment or anti-biotic ointment for it? Maybe try saline or eye flush regularly? I just feel like I’m not getting a straight answer from the vet as I’ve yet to have get an actual diagnosis and instead have been told it’s no biggie. Maybe I’m just over-reacting as I have been told it’s nothing but I feel bad for not having a solution.

I would just accept that my horse has one dysfunctional tear duct and not obcess about it. That is just part of owning this horse. You can't change it. Ointment is medication for a disease; if the eye isn't diseased, you don't medicate it.

It's far from her heart and just a minor inconvenience to you. I'm sure that the horse barely, if at all, even notices it.

My mare gets runny eyes starting in the spring so I give her a teaspoon(sometimes 1.5 if the pollen count is high) of nettle leaf powder twice a day and it helps tremendously. It won't help if it isn't allergies, but it's cheap and safe to try and see if it makes a difference. I get mine from a company called holistic herbal solutions(usually through their eBay store) and its only around $15/lb and it last me well over 3 months, last time I got it was around mid march and I still have maybe 1/4 of a lb left

It is impossible for 'allergies' alone, to cause this in only one eye, for a year and a half. It's unlikely to be a blocked tear duct(if it was I would have expected the treatment to work for at least a little while).

The vet is right to not be concerned about a clear discharge. But...since it's so persistent for such a long time, I would probably take the horse to an ophthalmologist. It would mean transporting the horse to that vet, and it would mean having another bill to pay. But I would expect to find out what the problem is and get a useful treatment for it.

Often persistent tearing is about a tumor within the eye, where you can't see it.

There are a number of different types of eye tumors.

The familiar type occurs around or near the eye, on the eyelids. People call these 'eye tumors' but they are actually on the skin outside the eye.

Tumors can also occur inside the eye itself.

The clear covering on the eye is called the cornea(many people confuse the cornea and lens; the lens is further inside the eyeball).

Behind the cornea, the eye is divided into two chambers - one in front of the lens, one behind the lens.

The chamber in front of the lens has the iris (colored ring around the pupil of the eye). The iris and other structures here can have tumors on it. These can be hard to see if they are the same color as the iris.

The chamber BEHIND the lens requires a special technique to be visualized. Tumors can form in there as well.

Some tumors are benign (not cancerous) but can still cause painful pressure and have to be removed.

Other tumors are due to cancer, and have to be removed. Many of them are not connected to cancer elsewhere in the body.

Long story short, Oz has had a leaky/weepy left eye for the better part of a year and a half. She’s been seen by multiple vets and I’ve been told it’s allergies, a blocked tear duct, and nothing at all. Her tear ducts have been flushed twice but within a day, her eye is weeping again.

There’s no cloudy/discolored discharge, only clear tears. There has never been any swelling or tenderness, she never avoids touch to it or rubs it at all. This occurs year-round and it’s also only the left eye, never the right.

Other than suggesting tear duct flushing, which hasn’t helped, the vets don’t seemed concerned by it as it doesn’t seem to cause her any discomfort.

I had made a previous thread about this when it first came about and had some serious concerns come around which is why I’ve had it looked at more and flushed twice as that was the main recommendation. I use a clean, wet washcloth daily to wipe her face off and use a fly mask to keep bugs off her face but I feel like it’s not enough.

Should I look into eye ointment or anti-biotic ointment for it? Maybe try saline or eye flush regularly? I just feel like I’m not getting a straight answer from the vet as I’ve yet to have get an actual diagnosis and instead have been told it’s no biggie. Maybe I’m just over-reacting as I have been told it’s nothing but I feel bad for not having a solution.

Calypso has wierd little hairs above her eye, where eyebrows would be, that tend to grow a stupid length, curlycu around, and poke her in the eye. Usually only her right eye, which for a while was chronically runny with no obvious cause. Trimming those funky hairs with scissors occasionally fixed it handily.
Now, it seems unlikely your horse would have the same problem, and even more unlikely you haven't noticed it, but worth a look all the same.

Thanks for the replies. I’ll just kept doing what I’m doing and so long as it doesn’t bother her, I won’t stress over it.

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You might want to run her to an opthalmologist if you've the means to do so. Obviously something is causing this and is not allergies or a blocked duct. Be prepared for the fact that it might be a tumor though. If it were one of our kids we'd not just let it slide..That's one way to look at it.

A blocked tear duct can have scar tissue/thickening occur. You can have your vet show you how to do a basic check for blocked tear ducts and ulcers with a fluroscein stain strip. It's something that's nice to know how to do.

My vet had me administer an ophthalmic ointment with steroid for 4 days after we flushed the tear duct to knock down any inflammation. Now, I give extra Vitamin E in the diet for allergies and treat with the ophthalmic ointment for a day or two when the tearing is excessive. My horse gets scalded skin and loses the hair on his face from the weeping eye if I don't keep it to a minimum.